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People on the move. A meeting on refugee-politics, oral history and humanitarian help
Start date: 01 Aug 2016,
End date: 31 Dec 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED

„People on the move.” People in motion. People fleeing.The youth meeting „People on the move” takes one week time to focus its sight on those people.The seminar group of this youth meeting project consists of 24 young Europeans between 20 and 30 years old from Greece, Slovenia and Austria. Each one of our countries played a decisive role in the so called “Balkan route” in the summer and autumn of 2015 – with different, even contradictory positions; all the more important it becomes in light of that, to come into discussion with each other and share, maybe even learn to understand, the differentiated positions.On one point, however, we are in agreement: the way in which refugees are handled and the way in which people talk about the refugee flows at the moment is now longer acceptable. We have a different picture of our home countries and of the European Union. And we want to share and to strengthen this picture of a solidary and just society and are convinced, that an improvement of the current situation is only possible through a joint European approach. Politically there seems to be still a long way to go for this option. But totally in the sense of an active and political civil society we want to make use of this youth meeting, in order to come out with European solutions as citizens of important influenced countries and to develop ideas together. The fact that there is an urgent need for such a dialogue cannot be overseen, especially in view of the conflicts between the EU countries and the raising of border fences.But we cannot use words alone. For this reason the youth meeting will be taking place on the island of Lesbos in Greece. At this spot, where last year more than half a million people dared the dangerous crossing from Turkey to Greece. The location has been chosen consciously as a place of contemporary history making. We want to work to think and to learn there, where history took place and still does. Such a place does not allow us to stay only at talks. It obliges us also to listen. Our task will also be to ask contemporary witnesses (residents of the island, refugees, people who are there to help) their version of history, to listen carefully and to discover an Oral History, which can be different from what each one of us reads in their media.The situation that we face in Slovenia, Austria and Greece requires us to get involved in the problems of refugees. Almost all of the participants engage themselves for refugees. Also this aspect should therefore find its place in Lesbos. Accordingly we are in contact with two initiatives, „The Hope Centre, Elpis“ and the “IRC”, as well as with the regional municipality’s office in charge for the refugee centre of Kara Tepe, in order to support the ones who have arrived and will be arriving there.As a result, „People on the move” means 24 Europeans discussing one week long about national and European refugee policy, helping refugees in first aid centres and listening carefully, how people who have fled narrate and understand modern history.